Structure Sensor Is an iPad-Powered 3D Scanner With Great Potential

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The device strapped onto my iPad drew more than a few stares. It hugged two opposing corners and added an oblong silver-and-glass mound to the back with what looked like a blinking, red laser eye.

"It’s the Structure Sensor," I explained, and it allows any iPad with a lightning connector to scan and import 3D images of rooms, objects and people. It’s kind of like a mobile Microsoft Kinect sensor for your tablet.

Occipital bills Structure Sensor as the World’s first 3D sensor for mobile devices. That’s true, for now. Google’s Project Tango includes tablets and phones that can create real-time 3D maps of your environment. Tango, however, does not appear close to commercialization.

The Structure Sensor (and SDK), which was born as Kickstarter project in 2013, is marching closer to commercial availability. It now has pricing and a small array of homegrown and third-party apps that show off the device’s powerful 3D-image scanning capabilities, and its potential to do much, much more.

I tested one of the first units and the handful of apps that Occipital sent with it and came away impressed.

Hardware

Unlike Google’s Tango project, the Structure Sensor is really a 3D scanning add-on for iPads (and laptops and desktops, if you buy the optional $39 USB cable, though it won't be able to take advantage of the iPad's camera). The included bracket will let you use it effectively with your iPad, and the scanning device attaches to it with four tiny screws. I hope the future implementations allow it to snap on and off.

While the scanner is adjacent to the tablet’s built-in camera, it — critically — doesn’t cover it. The power/sleep button does get covered, but an extender on the bracket gives you access to the button.

In order for the scanner to communicate with the iPad (and any Structure Sensor-ready apps you’re running on it), you need to use the included short white cable the goes from the sensor's proprietary port to the iPad’s lighting power and data port.

There’s also a power jack on the sensor, but you’ll only need that to charge up the scanner’s onboard batteries, which are rated to run for up to four hours of scanning.

Hoovering up 3D

Occipital’s Structure Sensor works much the way a Kinect sensor does: Its laser projector (which you can see if you stare directly at the face of the scanner) bathes the area and objects in a mesh of dots that the companion infrared camera uses to read for shapes and distance. Since it doesn't have a color camera, Structure Sensor uses the iPad's camera, and the bracket actually puts the device's sensors in perfect alignment with it — a necessity for precise 3D scanning.

According to Occipital, the device reads at approximately 30 frames per second in VGA resolution and, if close enough to the subject, with sub-millimeter precision. In my experience, the process of scanning an object and having the 3D representation appear on screen is quite fast and shockingly accurate.

We used the attached Structure Sensor and Itseez3D app to scan Assistant Photo Editor Christina Ascani's head

Image: Mashable, Sarah Fisher

With the scanner attached to the back of an iPad and the tablet's screen acting as the viewer, scanning is a pretty straightforward process. If, for example, you’re using itSeez3D photorealistic scanning app, you just choose whether you want to scan an object or a person, make sure you’re in a well-lit area, and point the scanner at your subject (while standing no more than three feet away from them).

If the object turns red on the display, then it’s in range, which means you're free and clear to start slowly moving around the object. As you do, the onscreen representation is covered by an opaque 3D skin, rather like throwing a white drape on your subject. You keep moving and scanning until the subject is completely covered in white.

If you move out of range or go too fast or even at too odd an angle, the scanner will lose its "grip" on the object and you may have to start again. By the time I scanned my third head, I was almost an expert. The result is both amazing and spooky: a fully rendered 3D bust of a real person that you can spin around with your fingers, and even pinch to zoom on the screen.

ItSeez3D also lets you output your scan as an OBJ or PLY file or export it to the online 3D object repository, Sketchfab, which converts it into an monochrome, 3D-printable image. You'll get the full-color version if you grab an API token from your Sketchfab account and add it into the ItSeez3D app.

While itSeez3D is supposed to let you scan objects, the scanner had tremendous difficultly "seeing" objects that are just one color. It failed on a yellow Snoopy doll and on my two-foot-tall Darth Vader figure. I usually got the message, “Could not find object or support plane” or “Scene is too uniform.”

Also somewhat less impressive were the test apps, Fetch and BallPhysics, both of which let you scan a room or an inanimate object and then add virtual objects that interact with real world. Each seemed to offer a very small field of vision — when scanning you need to stay within an onscreen 3D box. Objects outside it were mostly ignored.

I could, for example, scan an ottoman and part of a couch, but not the top two-thirds of the couch. These apps were also resource hogs and I couldn't run any of the apps Occipital built while also running itSeez3D without getting a "not enough resources" message.

Still, the effect on the items I was able to scan was pretty impressive. BallPhysics, for instance, lets you shoot and drop virtual balls on scanned objects and even though the balls only exist on-screen, they rolled and bounced off my ottoman as if they were really there.

Who it's for

Structure Sensor with Bracket

Image: Mashable, Sarah Fisher

The question remains, though: Why would you want this? How valuable is the 3D information about a person, place or thing?

Scanning an object so you can 3D print it later, especially if you need a replacement part at some point, is pretty smart. Occipital imagines people might use it for body scanning (to help fitness apps better track your performance) and immersive video games that, once you’ve scanned yourself or a friend, put you in the action.

The problem is that this is a $399 device, or $499 with Occipital Skanect 3D software. That costs as much as an Xbox One or an Xbox One and Kinect, respectively. Plus, it’s something you add on to your iPad, as opposed to integrated. The Structure Sensor is small for what it does, but sticks out a solid inch from the back of the iPad.

Even though Occipital tells me roughly a third of its Kickstarter supporters are consumers, this really isn't a consumer product. It's aimed at developers who want to dive into the 3D image space, but perhaps don't know where to begin. Clearly, the SDK — where developers will build new software and tools for the sensor — could lead to a whole batch of as-of-yet-unimagined 3D-scanning tools. But of the apps I saw, only one truly impresses. It’s a good start, but only a start.

Ultimately, this is a fantastic technology demonstration that will appeal to developers, early adopters and 3D printing fanatics. The mass market will wait for Tango or something like it.

Structure Sensor & SDK

The Good

Powerful mobile tool for making 3D scans of people, rooms and objects • Solid design • Easy to use

The Bad

Expensive • Not for everyone

The Bottom Line

Developers looking for a way to dive into mobile 3D scanning will want to check out the Structure Sensor, but consumers should only approach if they can accept, for now, the limited app options and relatively hefty price tag.

Bonus 3D Scan

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